Arabic press review: Saudi crown prince delays visit to Jordan

MBS postpones Jordan visit

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) decided to postpone his visit to Jordan, which was scheduled for Monday, online website Arabi21 reported.

According to the sources, MBS postponed this visit because he is still in Algeria, and Jordan will be his next Arab destination.

Jordanian journalists have criticised the visit which comes against the backdrop of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul in October.

Basil al-Akor, the publisher of Jo24 website, told Arabi21 that the reaction of Jordanian journalists to MBS' visit has been no different from those of journalists in Tunisia and other countries in the world.

Lawsuit against MBZ 'accepted' in France

An international human rights organisation that filed a lawsuit against Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in a French criminal court says its case has been accepted, Qatari newspaper Al-Arab reports.

The suit, filed by the Paris-based International Alliance for Defence of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL) last month, accuses the United Arab Emirates of being involved in war crimes in Yemen.

Ismail al-Shami, head of AIDL, told Al-Arab that the lawsuit has moved forward and the organisation is now waiting for a judge to be appointed.

Shami said the file shared with the court contains more than 1,000 cases, including live testimonies from Yemenis who have been detained in secret UAE prisons.

He said AIDL has been documenting violations by all of the parties in the war in order to bring further lawsuits before international courts.

Algerian politician criticises MBS red carpet rollout

The leader of one of Algeria's largest political parties has criticised the "red carpet" reception of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he arrived in the country on Monday.

In a post on his official Facebook page, Aderrazak Makri, head of the Algerian Movement of Society for Peace, said that Algerian politicians and had been corrupted by Saudi money.

"Our rulers have destroyed the country’s economy and then bin Salman drowned them in their financial crisis by reducing oil prices in response to Trump’s orders," he wrote. 

"They lost the Algerian dignity and manhood, so they accepted to be bribed by the killer of Yemeni children with his ill-earned dollars through the robbing of the resources of the Arabian Peninsula after the imprisonment and killing of its free citizens."

Makri added: "Those who roll out the red carpet for bin Salman do not care about Algeria. They are solving their crises by giving in to the colonial and international imperialist powers. They know that all the submissive countries have lost their economies, and that their people have been facing poverty and the stability and unity of some of them have been endangered."

Makri's comments came as MBS arrived in Algeria from Mauritania as part of his Arab countries tour during which he has faced protests.

Historic win for women in Bahraini elections 

Female candidates in Bahrain's parliamentary elections won a record six seats - or 15 percent - in the second and final round of voting held on Sunday, according to an Asharq Al-Awsat report.

The secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW) in Bahrain, Hala al-Ansari, confirmed that the number of women on the Council of Representatives has now doubled, according to the Saudi newspaper.

The polls also brought a sea of new faces to the parliament with 92 percent of the winners serving for the first time, the paper reported.

* Arabic press review is a digest of reports that are not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.